Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that, when processing print data transmitted from a host PC, avoids a feeding direction restriction for when printing, to a method of controlling the same, and to a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
In image forming apparatuses, in regards to special print media such as “a postcard” or “an envelope”, due to restrictions in a sheet conveyance mechanism and restrictions in image forming processing, various restrictions arise in association with a feeding direction, a direction of a leading edge/trailing edge in sheet feeding, or the like. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-7894, in order to avoid such restrictions, for a print image generated in a particular direction on a host side, an image is rotated in accordance with a sheet direction in which feeding is actually performed within an image forming apparatus.
On the other hand, a processing load is high for image rotation processing on high resolution data, and in mid/low speed range image forming apparatuses, the performance of equipped hardware calculation capabilities is insufficient with respect to an output speed of a print engine. Models of this kind are equipped with protection processing such as stopping printing in a case where image rotation processing is performed considering a device feeding direction on the host side or where an input image does not match the feeding direction of the image forming apparatus, since printing is impossible.
However, there is a problem with the above described conventional technique as recited below. For an image forming apparatus, a capability to print to various kinds of media is required, and one of these kinds of media is an envelope. In an envelope, because two sheets are pasted together, and because a diameter of a paper feed roller is small when a bend in the sheet conveyance path in the image forming apparatus is at an acute angle, it is easy for a distortion to occur in the two sheets of paper comprising the front and back of the envelope and for a rear edge side to become wrinkled depending on a paper quality of the envelope. In order to avoid the occurrence of such a wrinkle, a sheet width in a sub-scanning direction is shortened by setting the sheet such that a main-scanning side is the longer side of the envelope and the sub-scanning side is the shorter side of the envelope when printing, thereby reducing the distortion of the sheet and thus reducing the occurrence of wrinkles.
Meanwhile, there is a flap on an envelope, and there are cases in which depending on the flap width, the longer side of the envelope exceeds an upper limit on the main-scanning side in the printing. In such a case, it becomes necessary to make the shorter side of the envelope be the main-scanning side, and the longer side be the sub-scanning side. Because of the two reasons described above, in accordance with the paper quality and the shape including the flap part of the envelope that the user selects and sets in the paper feed tray, which of the shorter side or the longer side faces the main-scanning side changes. For this reason, in the image forming apparatus, it becomes important to rotate the image in accordance with the sheet feeding direction of the envelope.
However, in an image forming apparatus having low calculation capabilities, in a case where image rotation processing is performed in accordance with the paper feed tray when printing, when the resolution of the target image is high, the processing load becomes high, and the printing speed is reduced. In such a case, by the above described conventional technique, for high resolutions, out of concern that processing loads will increase, an image for which a rotation direction is determined in advance is generated and saved, and in a case where rotation processing is necessary, due to the direction that the sheet is placed in, or the like, measures are taken to quit the printing itself. However, in this kind of control, it is necessary for the user to always consider the direction of the sheet, but this is inconvenient.